Updates from India 46

Welcome to our blog. this month has been hard but a lot of good things as well as some not so good. We hope you enjoy it.

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The Garden

Comments from Kris

Our Jeep

Tattoo
Welcome to the 21st Century

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The true cost of water in India:

In the UK where I was born, we tend to take a constant water supply as a normal part of life. To be honest I rarely gave much thought to it when I lived there, in a country that has ample rainfall it is rare to have any drought conditions. Here in Rajasthan, India, it is very different.

Water supply for the whole year comes from the monsoon, a period of heavy rain lasting several months. This rain fills the lakes and rivers but more importantly fills the underground aquifers that supply all the wells.

Last year the monsoon was short and not as heavy as normal. The lakes and rivers filled but not the aquifers. To the average Indian who sees full lakes they assume all is well, it is not.

This is the first ‘poor’ monsoon since we moved here and it has highlighted just how tenuous life can be in a desert state such as Rajasthan.

Our home well is now dry as the aquifer level falls, many other wells are dry. We are buying water in a tanker that delivers to our home. We have set up a storage tank in the garden so we do have water. We are the lucky ones.

Each year Udaipur uses 17% more water than it gets from the monsoon, every time someone puts in a new well the situation gets worse.

For many years, the government and NGO’s have helped people get water for their crops or homes by providing a well. This has accelerated the use of water that cannot be replaced; eventually, more and more wells will fail to fill. This is not a theory; this is a cold hard fact: Udaipur is heading for drought conditions unless change happens and happens soon.

It’s the same as taking more money out of your bank than you put in. Eventually your balance falls to zero. There are two ways to stop this: put more in or take less out, it really is that simple. It’s the same with the aquifers.

People must drink, without water we die. Industry, here needs vast amounts of water to produce soft drinks, steel, and many other products, they pay for their water but there is a constant strain on the available supply as the civil population increases.

Can anything be done?

The ordinary person here can make a huge difference by stopping wasting water.

The government is beginning to meter water in the big cities to houses but it is also needed here to control waste.

Resorts pump thousands of litres onto their lawns to keep them green, pools are filled so that tourists can splash and swim while others thirst. How can this be right?

Farmers water by flooding in the daytime as their fathers and grandfathers did, a habit born of using animals to turn the pump, animals work in the daytime so the habit persists that watering is done in daylight. Fact: Approximately 70% of the water applied in the daytime evaporates, that is a huge amount of water wasted. Watering in the evening would do several beneficial things, it would improve crops as the plants have longer to drink, and most of the excess water would return to the underground aquifers rather than being lost to evaporation. When will anyone act to prevent the coming water crisis?

As always when the levels in the small lakes fall the pollution rises.

This summer 1.2 million children in India will die from water-borne infections, the old will be next, the sick and the infirm will follow. These people can’t afford to do as we have, they can’t afford to pay the water sellers. How can this be right?

I know that life isn’t fair; I know that most people won’t do anything until it is almost too late. We do what we can to save water and promote safe water purification methods but we really are a voice crying in the wilderness. Until more prosperous families start losing their water or local industry is affected either by rising water cost or lack of sufficient water to run the factories I fear nothing will be done.

In the meantime, it’s the poor, the children and the infirm that will pay the true cost of water in India with their lives.

Views of the  local area

Everywhere is turning brown

School children emptying their unused water into buckets at the end of the school day.

The Garden

Well as you can see from the photographs and the above comment water here is critical. We cannot in all good conscience use it on our lawn or plants. So this year we have to accept the fact that we have lost our crops and do what we can to save water.

We have been lucky with our leeks, they are ready so we are lifting them and freezing.

Melons, pumpkin, tomatoes and other crops are dying. It is so sad to see all our hard work drying up like this, but what is our choice. It would be so hypercritical to complain of water wastage and then pump hundreds of litres onto our garden while so many go thirsty.
Views of our garden

This is the lawn, thankfully the grass will grow as soon as we get the monsoon.

On a happier note, our leeks are really good with around 80 good sized going into the freezer, not counting those we eat! They are so hard to find here that now we know how to grow them we will make them a regular crop.

Our new papaya trees are about 6” tall now in pots. We will re- pot soon into large pots and plant out into the garden when the monsoon comes. They are an F1 variety not grown in Rajasthan. They are sweeter and heavier fruiting than the local variety. we got them from a commercial supplier in the south as seeds.

Our Girls have neighbours. We bought ten more chicks to rear. Bleu’ is very confused…………what’s all these birds doing in my garden!

This is our new water tank. 2000litres, it feeds to the underground tank and from there is pumped to the house tank.

                                                                          I was tempted to put the lid on!

Comments from Kris

As you can see by the photo yes I did climb inside our new water tank. Why you might ask, well although it might be fun I did need to get inside to connect the valve so we could get the water out once it was filled. It was surprisingly roomy inside but very hot so I was pleased when I climbed out albeit not very dignified.

We have had a really busy month sorting out our water pump that stopped working, a local plumber overhauled it and now it’s ok, realising we had no water to pump from the well We decided to buy a water storage container to help manage the problem as well as being very careful with the little water we had left in our roof storage tank. Fortunately, our friend knew how to get a tank of water delivered to us and we refilled our storage tank and the new tank so for now we are ok. It has made me much more aware about water wastage and I have been carefully saving the washing up water to use in the garden. I have limited the amount of laundry washing I am doing to essentials. I am really thankful that I am not one of the many here who have to walk miles to physically collect their water daily, at my age not sure I could cope with that.

I did a breast self-examination seminar with some local women recently and was struck by how much they wanted to know about the subject alongside the initial reluctance to actually do the check. It seems that shyness and a reluctance to touch their own bodies was a stronger instinct than an easy method which might save their lives. I spent quite some time discussing this with them and in the end they appeared to agree that it was worth overcoming their initial reluctance and do the checks. This was an informal seminar more of a social get together where we were able to discuss many different health issues and concerns. The gratifying thing was that the age range of the women was from the young daughter who came with her mother to the grandmother who lived in one of the flats. We even had the female manager of the complex attend. There was a mix of social classes which was nice to see them get together at the hostesses home nearby where we live. So over tea and biscuits, I shared about the importance of breast self-examination and demonstrated the simple technique. I think Chris thought I’d got lost what should have taken 45mins took over two and a half hours but was worth it. Hopefully, more to come.
On a personal front I will be 57 in May and at long last I have started the menopause, having mega hot flushes in the mega heat of summer, Chris said why couldn't I have done it in winter, I agree terrible timing. My sympathy to any other lady who is going through the same thing. Thank goodness for air con but doesn't help when out and about. 

Our Jeep

Well, we have been working on restoring the jeep for several months now doing all the work ourselves so far we have saved about Rs40,000 rupees about £400 by doing the work ourselves. total spent, Rs 1.3Lakh + Rs1500 = £1450:00. 

Chris has totally rewired what was a rat’s nest of wiring and replaced some of the lights and added new ones in, changed the oil and filters, greased all the bearings, repaired holes in the body, fitted new switches and about two dozen other jobs.

With the new lights, we can now have daylight when out and about in the villages where there is little or no lighting.

I have repainted the jeep by hand in what is known as bus green darkened a bit to our own colour palette, it’s more like British Racing Green now my favourite car colour after my beloved Morgan’s. Chris painted some of the inside and I did the rest. We can truly say we have worked hard to improve this vehicle at minimum cost. (Kris worked really hard on this as well as me so it really is a joint effort..Chris)

It’s getting exciting now as we are near the end of this work and will soon have it back on the road.
We are both really happy after the test drive, all went well, a bulb needs changing and we have a rattle from the roof frame (easy to fix).

The only major expense left are the tyres. All five need replacing but money won’t stretch that far in one go. So we are changing two now and two just before the monsoon, the best of the others will be a spare.

Now comes reregistering and insurance. We could (as so many here do) drive it without, but full insurance for us is a must. We would rather have it than risk an accident without it. We will also have person cover.

note the air con!

Tattoo

Well 65 years, I finally did it. I had never really thought I would but the opportunity was presented so I went for it.

I know some people don’t like tattoos for many and varied reasons. Some Christians also say it is something you shouldn’t do, but if we start down that road what about piercings, laser eye surgery, scar removal?

Kris loves it….really.

It is the symbols of my country, a red dragon with Wales in welsh under it.

Beautiful work and the artist has really captured the spirit of a dragon without making it look ‘Disney’.

Really nice guy, super artist and a very consistent penetration, almost no pain, just like an electric current on the skin.....mostly!
We were honoured to have the three guys from Ride2ink stay with us during their tour of India. They are Kishor, Vishwa and Sanju you can find out more of what they were up to on facebook by looking at Ride2ink, they also plan to do a youtube video. They are all great guys full of fun and were a pleasure to get to know. We look forward to them visiting us again.

Now I have to do something about the white arms!!

Welcome to the 21st century

At long last our church in the UK has started filming part of the service. This is really great for us as we feel as though we are there. We have been able to listen to the word but this is the first time it has been filmed. Alan Bell our Senior Elder was obviously the guinea pig for the experiment.

If you wish to know more about our home church or perhaps understand our beliefs a little better have a look at Emmanuel Church Durham by googling it, or go direct to www.emmanuel.org.uk

Each week different pastors both from our home church and visiting preach the word (sermon, message). It really is so much better than just listening to be able to see our church leaders “in the flesh” again.

To all at Emmanuel and especially those people who finally dragged the church kicking and screaming into the 21^st century please keep it up we love it.

When friends ask us about our church or want to watch with us it will now be so much easier to show them rather than have to explain.

Alan, have you ever considered going viral………

Well, that's about all for this month, from us here at 43degC and still rising, to all of you around this wonderful world, may God be with you and bless you wherever you are.

May He be with you when you struggle with trials and bring you joy and fulfilment when you walk with Him who is Lord of all.

Chris and Kris 

Udaipur Rajasthan India.